Double the twin trouble

Sarah Tennant wears Adidas soccer shoes. Madeline Tennant prefers Nike-branded footwear.

That's a very good thing when it comes to telling the two players apart on the soccer field. The two are identical twins and despite Madeline wearing her hair a little shorter than her sister this year, that's sometimes not enough.

"I had Madeline in class last year when she was taking geometry," Geneva girls soccer coach and math teacher Ryan Estabrook said. "There are still times when I have to look down at their shoes. Thankfully they wear different shoes."

After all these years, the sophomore Tennant twins are certainly used to being called by the others' name.

"You're used to being called 'Tennants' or "Twins,'" Sarah Tennant said. "If someone calls me Madeline, I'll respond. (Estabrook) tries to keep us separated so he can get a sense of how we play with other people. But that's because we play 10 times harder against each other, not because he wants to make it easy to tell which of us is which."

There have been a number of famous soccer-playing families in the area girls soccer world, and the instances where sisters have been featured on the same roster is numerous.

But the instances when two sisters who are the same grade in school compete for the same team -- well that's something altogether different.

This year, two area squads can hit their competition with double trouble. In Geneva's case, that threat comes from the sophomore Tennant tandem. At West Aurora, twins Ashley and Amber Malmgren are juniors and figure to be a thorn in the side for other teams for another two seasons.

However novel twins on the roster might be, there is still the reality that coaches tend to see individual girls who happen to reside at the same address when they head home from practice or matches.

"Around five years ago, I had twins in my program (at Antioch), and one made the varsity squad and the other didn't," Estabrook said. "It was a tough situation, but they had to try out on their own merit."

Fortunately, the Tennants are both good players, so they were able to work their way onto the squad in their second year in the Vikings program.

Both the Tennants and the Malmgrens said there is sometimes uncanny linkage between twins on the field. If you're looking for something around which to base a reality TV show, however, you're going to be disappointed. We're not exactly talking about telepathy here.

"We've been on the same team since kindergarten, other than one year," Madeline Tennant said. "We play so well together that I can tell where she's going to be and I expect what she's going to do. It's not like we can tell the future. But we work well together."

Madeline is the older of the Tennant twins, by 20 minutes. Their innate communication should come to good use this year as the Tennant twins are likely to both play forward for the Vikings. And Geneva will have plenty of new faces this year after graduating the bulk of last year's starting lineup.

"It definitely feels like we have some big shoes to fill," Madeline Tennant said. "As sophomores, there's not as much focus on us. Then again, we're young and we did make varsity. We're expected to work a little harder and try to be as good as last year."

Good was one way in which West Aurora could refer to its 2007 season. The Malmgren twins are part of that revival, and again figure to be in the thick of whatever success the team achieves this year.

"It was nice to have the two of them come in at the same time," West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic said. "Ashley is someone who scored 16 goals and had 6 assists as a freshman and was our leading scorer then while Amber took the responsibility of organizing the defense."

While the Tennant twins are identical, the Malmgrens are not. But while there was nearly a half-hour between births in the Tennant delivery room, the Malmgrens were born 1 minute apart -- Amber being the fractionally older one.

"When we play together, I kind of know where she's going," Amber Tennant said. "If she gets hurt, I feel her pain. It's like 'That's my leg too.' But I can't sit here and say 'She's thinking this or that.' But I can tell what she's going to do on the soccer field."

Ashley and Amber Malmgren play different positions and their personalities mirror their different roles in the Blackhawks system.

"A lot of people say I'm the shy one," Ashley Malmgren said. "And they say I don't talk as much. A lot of times, it's because I can't get a word in because she never stops."

Ashley suffered an Achilles tendon injury last year, and it took her into the off-season before she was back to full strength again. Amber was a help in many ways through her recovery.

"After practices and games, I'll ask her how I looked and if I was getting my speed back," Ashley Malmgren said. "And she's always totally honest with me. After games, I can tell her 'I think you could have played better' but she can also tell me 'That was a nice goal.'"

Becoming a force in the DuPage Valley Conference is difficult. This is the conference that has powers Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South and the Naperville schools.

However, this is just what the Blackhawks are working toward. Last year, they defeated Naperville Central and gave strong showings in most conference contests.

"The teams we did beat, we know that we now have big targets on our backs," Amber Malmgren said. "But we want to be better this year. We have good freshmen coming in and we want to be better."

Having a pair of Malmgrens has helped make the Blackhawks better, and the Vikings are banking on continued success from their newcomers, which includes a pair of Tennants.

And for the foreseeable future, Vikings and Blackhawks fans can help their opposition endure 80 minutes of "double trouble."